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Michael Caine

Sir Michael Caine, CBE (/keɪn/; born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is an English actor, producer and author. He has appeared in more than 130 films in a career spanning 70 years and is considered a British film icon. Known for his cockney accent, Caine was born in South London, where during his early childhood, he and his parents lived in a rented flat on Urlwin Street, in Camberwell. He made his breakthrough in the 1960s with starring roles in British films, including Zulu (1964), The Ipcress File (1965), Alfie (1966), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award, The Italian Job (1969), and Battle of Britain (1969). His roles in the 1970s included Get Carter (1971), The Last Valley (1971), Sleuth (1972), for which he earned his second Academy Award nomination, The Man Who Would Be King (1975), and A Bridge Too Far (1977). He achieved some of his greatest critical success in the 1980s, with Educating Rita (1983), earning him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. In 1986, he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Woody Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters.

Sir Michael Caine, CBE (/keɪn/; born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite, 14 March 1933) is an English actor, producer and author. He has appeared in more than 130 films in a career spanning 70 years and is considered a British film icon.[2] Known for his cockney accent, Caine was born in South London, where during his early childhood, he and his parents lived in a rented flat on Urlwin Street, in Camberwell.[3]

Early life

Michael Caine was born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite on 14 March 1933 in St Olave's Hospital in Rotherhithe, London.[6][7][8] His father, Maurice Joseph Micklewhite Sr. (20 February 1899, St Olave, Bermondsey, London –1956, Lambeth, London), was a fish market porter, while his mother, Ellen Frances Marie Burchell (1900, Southwick, London –1989, London), was a cook and charwoman.[9][10] He was brought up in his mother's Protestant religion.[11]

The prefabs, as they were known, were intended to be temporary homes while London was reconstructed, but we ended up living there for eighteen years and for us, after a cramped flat with an outside toilet, it was luxury.[14]

Military career

From 28 April 1952, when he was called up to do his national service until 1954, he served in the British Army's Royal Fusiliers, first at the BAOR HQ in Iserlohn, Germany, and then on active service during the Korean War. He had gone into Korea feeling sympathetic to communism, coming as he did from a poor family, but the experience left him permanently repelled.[17] He experienced a situation where he knew he was going to die, the memory of which stayed with him and formed his character; he later said, "The rest of my life I have lived every bloody moment from the moment I wake up until the time I go to sleep."[18] He detailed the incident in his autobiography, The Elephant to Hollywood.[19][20]

Caine would like to see the return of national service to help combat youth violence, stating: "I'm just saying, put them in the Army for six months. You're there to learn how to defend your country. You belong to the country. Then, when you come out, you have a sense of belonging, rather than a sense of violence."[21]

Acting career

1950s

Caine began his acting career at the age of 20 in Horsham, Sussex, when he responded to an advertisement in The Stage for an assistant stage manager who would also perform small walk-on parts for the Horsham-based Westminster Repertory Company who were performing at the Carfax Electric Theatre.[22] Adopting the stage name "Michael Scott", in July 1953 he was cast as the drunkard Hindley in the Company's production of Wuthering Heights.[23][24] He moved to the Lowestoft Repertory Company in Suffolk for a year when he was 21. It was here that he met his first wife.[25] He has described the first nine years of his career as "really, really brutal."[26] Whilst in Lowestoft rep at the Arcadia Theatre (with Jackson Stanley's 'Standard Players') he appeared in nine plays.

1960s

Caine continued to appear on television, in serials The Golden Girl and No Wreath for the General, but was then cast in the play The Compartment, written by Johnny Speight, a two-hander also starring Frank Finlay. This was followed by main roles in other plays including the character Tosh in Somewhere for the Night, a Sunday-Night Play written by Bill Naughton televised on Sunday 3 December 1961, another two-hander by Johnny Speight, The Playmates, and two editions of BBC plays strand First Night, Funny Noises with Their Mouths and The Way with Reggie (both 1963). He also acted in radio plays, including Bill Naughton's Looking for Frankie on the BBC Home Service (1963) and Ping Pong on the BBC Third Programme (1964).
A big break came for Caine when he was cast as Meff in James Saunders' Cockney comedy Next Time I'll Sing To You, when this play was presented at the New Arts Theatre in London on 23 January 1963.[29] Scenes from the play's performance were featured in the April 1963 issue of Theatre World magazine.[30]

When this play moved to the Criterion in Piccadilly with Michael Codron directing, he was visited backstage by Stanley Baker, one of the four stars in Caine's first film, A Hill in Korea, who told him about the part of a Cockney private in his upcoming film Zulu, a film Baker was producing and starring in. Baker told Caine to meet the director, Cy Endfield, who informed him that he already had given the part to James Booth, a fellow Cockney who was Caine's friend, because he "looked more Cockney" than Caine did. Endfield then told the 6'2" Caine that he did not look like a Cockney but like an officer, and offered him a screen test for the role of a snobbish, upper class officer after Caine assured him that he could do a posh accent. Caine believes Endfield offered him, a Cockney, the role of an aristocrat because, being American, he did not have the endemic British class-prejudice. Though he tested poorly, Endfield gave him the part that would make him a film star.[31]

Location shooting for Zulu took place in Natal, South Africa, for 14 weeks in 1963.[32][33][34] According to his 2011 autobiography The Elephant to Hollywood, Caine had been signed to a seven-year contract by Joseph E. Levine, whose Embassy Films was distributing Zulu. After the return of the cast to England and the completion of the film, Levine released him from the contract, telling him, "I know you're not, but you gotta face the fact that you look like a queer on screen." Levine gave his contract to his Zulu co-star James Booth.[35]

Caine in Helsinki, 1967

Subsequently, Caine's agent got him cast in the BBC production Hamlet at Elsinore (1964) as Horatio, in support of Christopher Plummer's Hamlet. Horatio was the only classical role which Caine, who had never received dramatic training, would ever play. Caine wrote, "...I decided that if my on-screen appearance was going to be an issue, then I would use it to bring out all Horatio's ambiguous sexuality."[36]

1970s

After working on The Italian Job with Noël Coward, and a solid role as RAF fighter pilot squadron leader Canfield in the all-star cast of Battle of Britain (both 1969), Caine played the lead in Get Carter (1971), a British gangster film. Caine was busy with successes including Sleuth (1972) opposite Laurence Olivier, and John Huston's The Man Who Would Be King (1975) co-starring Sean Connery which received widespread acclaim.[39]The Times applauded the "lovely double act of Caine and Connery, clowning to their doom", while Huston paid tribute to Caine's improvisation as an actor: "Michael is one of the most intelligent men among the artists I've known. I don't particularly care to throw the ball to an actor and let him improvise, but with Michael it's different. I just let him get on with it."[39]

2000s

In the 2000s, Caine appeared in Miss Congeniality (2000), Last Orders (2001), The Quiet American (2002), for which he was Oscar-nominated, and others. Several of Caine's classic films have been remade, including The Italian Job, Get Carter, Alfie and Sleuth. In the 2007 remake of Sleuth, Caine took over the role Laurence Olivier played in the 1972 version and Jude Law played Caine's original role. Caine is one of the few actors to have played a starring role in two different versions of the same film. In an interview with CNN, Law spoke of his admiration for Caine: "I learned so much just from watching how he monitored his performance, and also how little he has to do. He's a master technician and sometimes he was doing stuff I didn't see, I couldn't register. I'd go back and watch it on the monitor, it was like 'Oh my God, the amount of variety he's put in there is breathtaking".[45]

It was reported by Empire magazine that Caine had said that Harry Brown (released on 13 November 2009) would be his last lead role.[46] Caine later clarified that he had no intention of retiring, stating that "You don’t retire in this business; the business retires you."[47][48]

2010s

Caine (second from right) with the cast of Inception at the 10 July premiere in 2010

Caine reprised his role as Alfred Pennyworth in the Batman sequel, The Dark Knight Rises, which was released in July 2012. He appeared in Christopher Nolan's 2014 science-fiction film, Interstellar as Dr. Brand.[49] Caine co-starred in Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014), by director Matthew Vaughn.[50] He also appeared in the lead role of retired composer Fred Ballinger in the comedy-drama film Youth, for which he received widespread acclaim.

Popular culture

"I kept my cockney accent in order to let other working class boys know that if I made it, they could do it too."

—Caine speaking to CNN's The Screening Room in 2007 on retaining his accent.[45]

Caine is regarded as a British cultural icon, with Mairi Mackay of CNN stating: "Michael Caine has been personifying British cool since the swinging sixties. He has brought some of British cinema's most iconic characters to life and introduced his very own laid-back cockney gangster into pop culture. He doggedly retained a regional accent at a time when the plummy tones of Received Pronunciation were considered obligatory. It is a sweet irony that his accent has become his calling card."[45] With his distinctive voice and manner of speaking, Caine is a popular subject for impersonators and mimics.[56] Most Caine impressions include the catchphrase "Not a lot of people know that."[45] The catchphrase emanates from Caine's habit of informing people of obscure "interesting facts" that he has collected.[57] Referring to Caine as being the "biggest mine of useless information", Peter Sellers initiated the catchphrase when he appeared on BBC1's Parkinson show on 28 October 1972 and said:

Not many people know that. This is my Michael Caine impression. You see, Mike's always quoting from the Guinness Book of Records. At the drop of a hat he'll trot one out. 'Did you know that it takes a man in a tweed suit five-and-a-half seconds to fall from the top of Big Ben to the ground?' Now there's not many people who know that![58]

Over the years Caine himself had parodied the phenomenon, both his catchphrase and his "interesting facts", and has imitated others' impressions of him.[59] In an interview with Michael Parkinson in 2007, Caine commented on the impersonations of his voice, "I can do it. 'Hello. My name is Michael Caine. Not many people know that.' I sound like a bloody moron. You know where they've got me now? On birthday cards. 'It's your birthday today. Not many people know that'. Now they've got me on Satellite navigation. It's me going, 'take the second turn on the right, and you'll wind up right in the shit.'"[59] In 1983, Caine used his "not a lot of people know that" phrase as a joke in the film Educating Rita.[45]

The comedy sketch show, Harry Enfield's Television Programme, included a series of sketches in which Paul Whitehouse played a character called Michael Paine; an amalgam of previous Michael Caine impressions, who in a reference to Caine's character Harry Palmer from The Ipcress File wears oversized, thick-rimmed glasses and a trench coat. He introduces himself with the line, "My name is Michael Paine, and I am a nosy neighbour" and in a spoof of the stakeout at the beginning of The Ipcress File, recounts to the camera the 'suspiciously' mundane behaviour of his neighbours, before saying, "Not a lot of people know that I know that".[60]

A parody of Caine appears in the animated series Ugly Americans, in the episode "The Dork Knight", which also parodies the film The Dark Knight. In the episode, Caine appears as himself, portrayed in the light of his Alfred Pennyworth interpretation, and constantly annoys the protagonists with endless anecdotes of his career.

The 2010 television series The Trip, starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, featured improvised scenes in which the two leads argue over who can do the better Michael Caine impression.[61] Among the lines they repeat in their attempts to outdo each other are, "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!" and, "She was only sixteen"—from The Italian Job and Get Carter, respectively.[61] Coogan and Brydon later did their impressions from a balcony at the Royal Albert Hall during a celebration of Caine's work, only to be interrupted by the real Caine informing them that they were out of shape: "For me, it's a full-time job."[62]

Craig Ferguson ran segments on his show where he parodied Caine, usually while wearing a space suit.[63] In a 2010 interview with The Telegraph, Caine spoke of the impersonations and how everyone he meets quotes lines at him, to the point he quotes them quoting him.[60] When asked whether he ever tired of telling his anecdotes, Caine stated: "I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them against yourself. If you praise yourself your stories aren't funny."[60]

Caine was married to actress Patricia Haines from 1955 to 1962. They have a daughter, Dominique (who was named after the heroine of the novel The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand).[68] He dated Bianca Jagger in 1968. Caine has been married to actress and model Shakira Baksh since 8 January 1973. They met after Caine saw her appearing in a Maxwell House coffee commercial and a friend gave him her telephone number. He called her every day for ten days until she finally agreed to meet him.[69] They have a daughter, Natasha Haleema.[70][71] As a Christian married to a Muslim, he says "no questions or issues ever come up" and describes his wife's beliefs as "very benign".[72]

Proud of his working class roots, Caine has discussed the opportunities his film career gave him: "I got to play football with Pelé, for God's sake. And I danced with Bob Fosse."[60] He also became close friends with John Lennon, stating: "With John and I it was a case of bonding because we were both working class and we shared a sense of humour. We were pretending we weren't who people thought we were."[60] His closest friends include two James Bond actors, Sean Connery and the late Roger Moore.[60]

Caine quit his 80-a-day smoking habit in the early 1970s after a lecture by Tony Curtis.[73] He is a fan of cricket. This was alluded to by Gary Oldman, who acted with Caine in The Dark Knight Rises, when he talked about Caine's acting methods: "It's, 'Take one'. He got it. 'Take two', got it. 'Take three', got it. He's just on the money. [...] He doesn't fuck around because he wants to get back to cricket."[74]

Some time after his mother died, Caine and his younger brother, Stanley, learned they had an elder half-brother named David. He suffered from severe epilepsy and had been kept in Cane Hill Mental Hospital his entire life. Although their mother regularly visited her first son in the hospital, even her husband did not know the child existed. David died in 1992.[75]

Trivia books written by Caine include Not Many People Know That!, And Not Many People Know This Either!, Michael Caine's Moving Picture Show, and Not a Lot of People Know This is 1988. Proceeds from the books went to the National Playing Fields Association, a UK charity for which Caine served as Vice President, and which aims to protect and promote open spaces for sports and recreation in British cities and towns.[76]

In July 2016, Caine changed his name by deed poll to his long-time stage name in order to simplify security checks at airports. "[A security guard] would say, 'Hi Michael Caine,' and suddenly I'd be giving him a passport with a different name on it [Maurice Joseph Micklewhite]. I could stand there for an hour. So I changed my name."[77]

Political views

Caine has often been outspoken about his political views. He left the United Kingdom for the United States in the late-1970s, citing the income tax levied on top earners by the Labour government of James Callaghan, which then stood at 83%.[78] He lived in Beverly Hills during that time, but returned to the UK eight years later when taxes had been lowered by the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher:

I realised that's not a socialist country, it's a communist country without a dictator, so I left and I was never going to come back. Maggie Thatcher came in and put the taxes back down and in the end, you know, you don't mind paying tax. What am I going to do? Not pay tax and drive around in a Rolls-Royce, with cripples begging on the street like you see in some countries?[79]

Following the launch of his film Harry Brown in 2009, Caine called for the reintroduction of national service in the UK to give young people "a sense of belonging, rather than a sense of violence".[80]

In 2009, Caine publicly criticised the Labour government of Gordon Brown for its new 50% income tax rate on top earners and threatened to return to the US if his taxes were increased further.[81] During the run up to the 2010 general election, Caine publicly endorsed the Conservative Party and appeared with then-party leader David Cameron for the launch of a civilian non-compulsory "National Service" for sixteen-year-olds, although Caine stated he had previously supported New Labour under the leadership of Tony Blair in 1997.[82] In July 2014, Caine was reported to have been a celebrity investor in a tax avoidance scheme called Liberty.[83]

Caine voted in favour of Brexit, stating he would rather be a "poor master than a rich servant".[84] He said he was a reluctant Leaver; "I don't know what to vote for. Both are scary. To me, you've now got in Europe a sort of government-by-proxy of everybody, who has now got carried away. Unless there is some extremely significant changes, we should get out."[85]

Awards and honours

Caine has been nominated for an Oscar six times, winning his first Academy Award for the 1986 film Hannah and Her Sisters, and his second in 1999 for The Cider House Rules, in both cases as a supporting actor. His performance in Educating Rita in 1983 earned him the BAFTA and Golden Globe Award for Best Actor. Caine is one of only two actors nominated for an Academy Award for acting in every decade from the 1960s to 2000s (the other one being Jack Nicholson); Laurence Olivier was also nominated for an acting Academy Award in five different decades, beginning in 1939 and ending in 1978, as has Paul Newman (1950s, '60s, '80s, '90s and 2000s). Caine appeared in seven films that were ranked in the BFI's 100 greatest British films of the 20th century.[89]

↑ For an account of his evacuation and early school years, as sent to Jerry Pam—another Hackney Downs pupil whom he met in the 1950s, who was 6 years his senior, and who has become his publicist for "over 50 years"—see "MC" [Michael Caine], "A Message from Evacuee Maurice Micklewhite", The Clove's Lines: The Newsletter of The Clove Club: The Old Boys of Hackney Downs School 3.2 (March 2009): 16.

↑ William Hall (2004). The Biography of Sir Michael Caine;70 Not Out. John Blake. ISBN1-84454-019-7.